Broadband in Shropshire

Shropshire has a few well-served urban towns, with residents able to choose from up to three full fibre networks.

Openreach, Virgin Media, and BeFibre, are all active in Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry and Leominster.

While residents in more rural areas of Shropshire can look to specialists Gigaclear, as well as Airband fixed wireless, or even Brdy satellite in very hard-to-reach areas.

Credit: Davelees/Shutterstock.com

Most popular broadband deals in Shropshire

Residents living in Shropshire towns including Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry, and Leominster, will have the greatest choice of broadband provider, as well as options for full fibre and gigabit-capable connections.

These towns are served by major providers Openreach and Virgin Media, as well as smaller alt-net BeFibre, and Gigaclear around Leominster. That means residents can choose from challenger brands as well as mainstream names like BT, Sky, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Vodafone, and NOW Broadband.

Here are four of the best broadband deals available in Shropshire:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Rebel 115	115Mb average	£35	Free	24 months
	Offer: £60 Amazon Gift Card with code WIFIREBEL + Fixed Price Guarantee + Tri-band Wi-Fi extender £5/mth each
	Full Fibre 145	145Mb average	£27.99	Free	24 months
	Offer: £50 Reward Card + Save over £12/mth + No setup fee + Exclusive offers and discounts for Plusnet customers (Ends 01/01/2025)
	Full Fibre 100	150Mb average	£30.99	£11.99	24 months
	Offer: £50 BT Reward Card + Reduced price for 24 months + No activation fee save £20 (Ends 02/01/2025)
	Be150	150Mb average	£12 for 2 mths, then £24	Free	18 months
	Offer: Half price for 2 months + Free installation and set-up worth £250 (Ends 29/12/2024)

Due to the differences in properties across Shropshire, the exact deals available will vary, with those living in more rural areas limited to specialist providers including Airband, Brdy and Gigaclear.

So, make sure to use our free postcode tool to check availability and find the best deals for you.

Cheapest broadband in Shropshire

We used the postcode SY2 5HB, or Bishop Street, which is a residential street in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, to find the cheapest broadband deals in the area.

Here are four of the cheapest broadband deals available in Shropshire:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Be150	150Mb average	£12 for 2 mths, then £24	Free	18 months
	Offer: Half price for 2 months + Free installation and set-up worth £250 (Ends 29/12/2024)
	Full Fibre 75	75Mb average	£22	Free	24 months
	Offer: Free setup
	Full Fibre 100	100Mb average	£24	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable
	Full Fibre 74	73Mb average	£24.50	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers

While we chose a postcode with availability from three full fibre networks, most of Shropshire won't have this much choice, and many homes in the county are actually in quite rural harder-to-reach areas.

So, looking at the postcode SY5 8JB, which is in Hinton in Shropshire, we can also the cheapest broadband deals available to those in more rural areas:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Airspeed 40	40Mb average	£25 for 10 mths, then £30	Free	24 months
	Offer: Save £5/mth for 10 months with code SAVENOW
	Satellite Standard	50Mb average	£29.90	£199	1 month
	Offer: £199 equipment fee, or rent for £5/mth

Residents in these areas may only be able to choose from copper ADSL lines with average download speeds of just 10Mb, which over distances is unlikely to perform well.

This is where rural specialist providers like Airband come in, who offer a fixed wireless service that uses an outdoor receiver to pick up a data connection from a full fibre line via direct line of sight.

Other options to those in hard-to-reach areas include Brdy, a satellite broadband service with download speeds up to 100Mb available.

Overall then, availability at specific addresses could vary considerably, so use our free postcode tool and order by 'Lowest price' to find the cheapest deals for your home in Shropshire.

How fast is broadband in Shropshire?

A broadly rural area, Shropshire has an average broadband speed of 108.5Mb down, and 44.6Mb up, while nearby Telford and The Wrekin has an average broadband speed of 177.9Mb up, and 27.2Mb.

These speed results are based on crowd sourced data collected by ThinkBroadband from speed test tools, including ours.

While Shropshire is predominantly a rural county, towns including Telford, Shrewsbury, Newport and Bridgnorth are actually well served by either, or both, Openreach FTTP and Virgin Media.

This becomes more noticeable when we look at speed reports by constituency in Shropshire, with Telford, The Wrekin and Shrewsbury experiencing faster broadband speeds than in the more rural South Shropshire area.

As we can see from the coverage data below, while some parts of Shropshire are behind the UK's full fibre coverage figure of 70%, some areas still have good gigabit broadband coverage due to Virgin Media availability.

Virgin Media passes just 18% of homes in Shropshire, but over 70% in Telford and The Wrekin.

Looking at the areas in Shropshire in more detail, we can also see that full fibre coverage is better in Shrewsbury, as well as North Shropshire, areas which both have more alt-nets rolling out full fibre.

BeFibre, an independent full fibre network with speeds up to 2Gbps is available in Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Wem, while Nexfibre has rolled out full fibre for Virgin Media in Shrewsbury, and Freedom Fibre is available in Whitchurch.

For those in more rural locations in Shropshire, Airband have wide availability across most of the county with both their full fibre and fixed wireless services, helping to connect those in harder-to-reach areas to broadband speeds up to 900Mbps.

Fastest broadband deals in Shropshire

Using the postcode SY2 5HB, or Bishop Street, which is a residential street in the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, we can find out the fastest broadband available in the area.

We've chosen this postcode because it has availability from alt-net BeFibre, as well as Openreach FTTP and Virgin Media full fibre via Nexfibre. However, more rural properties in Shropshire are unlikely to have the same level of coverage, so we'll look at that below too.

The overall fastest broadband deal in SY2 5HB, Shropshire, is BeFibre's Be2300 plan, which offers symmetrical download and upload speeds of 2.3Gb per second.

Second to this, is Virgin Media's Gig2 Fibre Broadband, with average download speeds of 2Gbps and optional symmetrical upload speeds. With the third fastest deal Vodafone's Pro II Full Fibre 1.6 plan, which offers 1.6Gbps download speeds on the Openreach network.

Here are four of the fastest broadband deals available in Shropshire:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Be2300	2.3Gb average	£25 for 2 mths, then £50	Free	18 months
	Offer: Half price for 2 months + Free installation and set-up worth £250 (Ends 29/12/2024)
	Gig2 Fibre Broadband	2Gb average	£69.99	Free	18 months
	Offer: Reduced price: £69.99 per month + No setup fee (was £35)
	Pro II Full Fibre 1.6	1.6Gb average	£70	Free	24 months
	Offer: £4 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
	Gig1 Fibre Broadband	1.13Gb average	£40.99	Free	18 months
	Offer: Reduced price: £40.99 per month + No setup fee (was £35)

As mentioned, in more rural areas residents may need to turn to Airband for the fastest broadband deal. So, if we look at a rural postcode SY5 8JB, or Hinton in Shropshire, we can see the fastest broadband deal in rural Shropshire is going to be Airband's Airspeed 400 plan, which offers average download speeds of 400Mb.

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Airspeed 400	400Mb average	£30 for 10 mths, then £40	Free	24 months
	Offer: Save £10/mth for 10 months with code SAVENOW
	Satellite Superfast	100Mb average	£54.90	£199	1 month
	Offer: £199 equipment fee, or rent for £5/mth

Residents in Shropshire may also have access to Brdy Satellite, another option for those struggling to get connected in harder-to-reach rural locations.

Overall, Shropshire has a mixture of urban and very rural properties, so, availability at specific addresses will vary, so use our free postcode tool and order by 'Broadband speed' to find the fastest deals for your home in Shropshire.

Summary: Who is the best broadband provider in Shropshire

Shropshire's mix of urban towns and widespread rural premises mean residents will have varying options available to them.

The main towns of Shrewsbury, Telford, Oswestry, Leominster and Wem are all served by at least one full fibre network, with some having the choice of Openreach, Virgin Media, and BeFibre gigabit broadband services.

Outside of these areas, rural-specialist providers have stepped in, with good coverage from Airband across Shropshire, as well as Gigaclear in and around Leominster, and options from Brdy's satellite service as well.

When we looked at a residential location in Shrewsbury, Shropshire we found:

• The cheapest broadband deal in urban Shropshire areas is BeFibre's Be150 plan, or NOW Broadband's Full Fibre 75 plan for £22 per month.
• The fastest broadband deal in urban Shropshire areas in BeFibre's Be2300 plan with symmetrical download and upload speeds of 2.3Gbps.
• The best broadband with TV in urban Shropshire areas is with Virgin Media, who pass over 70% of homes in Telford and The Wrekin, as well as in Shrewsbury

In more rural locations in Shropshire, we found:

• The cheapest broadband deal in rural Shropshire areas is Airband's Airspeed 40 plan, which offers 40Mb speeds for £30 per month.
• The fastest broadband deal in rural Shropshire areas is Airband's Airspeed 400 plan, which offers average download speeds of 400Mb, while properties in the Leominster area may be able to get Gigaclear's Hyperfast 900 plan, with 900Mb download speeds
• The best broadband with TV in rural Shropshire may be difficult to come by, with residents best off with Sky's satellite TV service, Sky Q, or a fast broadband deal coupled with Sky Stream.

Ultimately, residents should use our free postcode tool to see exactly what's available to them, and then order deals by price, special offer, broadband speed, or contract length, to find the deal that's right for them.